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| All the fixings for falafel night |
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| The final product |
I love falafel. Growing up, I attended a Jewish Day School, and our "cafeteria" was catered by Mati's Falafel and Pita Shop. Once a week our class was permitted to buy our lunch from Mati. I can remember the growing excitement and anticipation as I waited in line to buy my half-falafel, slice of pizza and bag of Wise chips.
Once I graduated from junior high I would happily make the trek uptown to Mati's Bathurst Street storefront to buy falafel and a slice. And funny enough, it always tasted as delicious as I remembered it being when I was a little girl.
Fast forward to 1987, and the summer I spent in Israel. My Sabra (Israeli-born) friends all laughed at me because I constantly ate falafel, at least one a day. (A comparison would be someone visiting Canada and eating a hot dog from a street vendor every day of their trip).
Mati closed up shop in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and it wasn't until we discovered Me-Va-Me that my falafel cravings could be satiated. And then, last spring they opened a second restaurant in the north end of the city!
Now I am able to pick up fresh pita and hummus to compliment my home-made (from a mix) falafel, Israeli salad and tehina. Give me time to get a new food processor, following which I have every intention of making my falafel and hummus from scratch!
And so, for Meatless Monday, I whipped up a batch of falafel, tehina and salad, and we sat down to a delicious, filling, dinner - which is a good thing considering my cheesecake debacle left us without dessert! LOL!
Stay tuned for a pictorial step-by-step of home-made pizza night for Tomato Tuesday! Until then, I wish you a wonderful day filled with fun, friends and fantastic food....B'Tayavon and Buon Appetito!
Can you share your recipe for the falafel? It looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Judy
Thanks Judy! I buy my pitot fresh on the day I am serving falafel(either from Me-va-Me or Orly Grill).
DeleteThe falafel are made from the Telma mix. I prefer that mix over the others - but always do a test run with one ball to make sure it holds its form. If not, I bind the mixture with a little flour.
The Israeli salad is a mixture of diced cucumber and tomato, sprinkled with parsley, and tossed with salt and lemon juice to taste.
The hummus is from Norene's Golden Bible - The Pleasures of Your Food Processor.
I use store-bought tehina as my base, and add water, lemon juice, salt, garlic powder and paprika..all to taste until it reaches the taste and consistency our family likes.
Last night we added chopped pickles (Strubs), Israeli hot peppers (Kvutzat Yavne) and Israeli cracked olives (Strubs). Yumm!